[s-cars] 93 S4 problems

[Wayne Dohnal]

Comments below for a few of these items that I have experience with.  See
lines starting with *****.

Wayne Dohnal
1994 S4

>List-
>Need some opinions to give to a friend who is looking to
>get into an UrS, but it has some problems:

>Water temp. gauge inoperative
***** It's very possible that this is due to a broken thermostat, a very
common problem, and normally replaced with the timing belt.  With a totally
broken thermostat the temp gauge will come off the pin just a little bit
when the engine is hot.

>ABS light on all the time (no ABS deactivate switch on this car)

>Cracked windshield
****** With a small amount of arm-twisting I paid $312 to get mine replaced
last April.  If the '93 has the antenna in the windshield it will be a bit
more.

>Cracked lower grilles in the bumper, kept together w/ zip-ties

>Some miscellaneous exterior trim loose, needs replacement

>No evidence of timing belt work done, 115k on the car
***** Not all that expensive if you do it yourself.

>Everything else seems to work fine, at least he didn't mention
>anything.
***** I'd bet that about least half of the lighted switches are no longer
lighted, and the driver's seat heater has a 50% probability of being out.

>Sounds like a $8-9000 car needing about $3k if not $4k worth of
>work. Recent clutch job, at least. Asking $12k. Not my cup of
>tea with all of that work needing to be done.
***** If it's a good clutch job this adds real value to the car.  At this
mileage the original clutch would be ready to go at any time to the tune of
at least $2K.

>Taka